Chocolate-Hazelnut Smooches

After watching the Halloween episode of Everyday Italian, I couldn't wait to make these cookies for my Halloween party! Not only do they look festive, but they taste great! The only change I made is that I left out the Hershey Kisses. I plan on making these again at Christmas with red and green sugar.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chocolate hazelnut spread (recommended: Nutella)

1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup orange sprinkles, or orange sugar

1 (9-ounce) package of chocolate candy kisses, unwrapped (recommended: Hershey's)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In another medium bowl, place the chocolate hazelnut spread, butter, and both sugars. Using a hand mixer, cream the ingredients together, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and blend until incorporated. Stir in the dry ingredients, just until incorporated.

Shape the cookie dough into walnut-sized balls. Rolls the balls in the orange sprinkles or orange sugar, pressing to adhere. Place the cookies on a heavy cookie sheet about 4 inches apart. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven. Quickly place a chocolate kiss in the middle of each cookie. Return the cookies to the oven and bake for another 3 minutes. Cool the cookies on a wire rack.

Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie

I have never been able to make a REALLY good chocolate chip cookie. Sure my Toll house cookies came out okay, but not great. The wife of one of my old coworkers used to make cookies for our office all the time and they were amazing. I never understood why mine never came out that great. I came across this recipe on Allrecipes.com and they live up to their name. They were big, fat and chewy! I can't believe I made a great chocolate chip cookie. Finally!

I cut back on the chocolate chips a bit. I probably used about 1 1/2 cups instead of two. I put the dough in the refrigerator for an hour before I baked them. I also used an ice cream scoop instead of a measuring cup. I came out with 16 big cookies.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.

Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 18 Cookies